ORE CATAPULT REPORTS

Cornwall FLOW Accelerator: Innovation in Low Carbon Design & Manufacturability – Report 2

The Cornwall FLOW Accelerator project (CFA) aims to develop, accelerate, and spearhead the industrialisation of floating offshore wind in the Celtic Sea. It will accelerate the region’s readiness for large scale Floating Offshore Wind (FLOW) and will fast-track development of the region’s capacity to build-out large-scale wind farms in the Celtic Sea from 2025 onwards. The project will utilise these for new product and service development for industrial partners, building clear routes to market as well as de-risking initial investment. The focus of this report aims to define the current state-of-the-art in offshore Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT) blade manufacture, and to determine the best opportunities for low-carbon and environmentally friendly cost-effective processes for potential port development for blade production. Also, future blade concepts will be explored to determine feasibility.

The main scope of this report is for production of the next generation of turbine blades with reduced environmental impact, and with the next generation of recyclable materials in the manufacturing process. Part 1 of this report contained a desk-based benchmarking study into the opportunities for low carbon manufacture of turbine blades, which outlines the current state-of-the-art and explores some concepts for the immediate future of blade manufacturing in the Southwest. This is the second of a two-part report which sets out to highlight future opportunities in blade manufacturing and to identify areas of potential cost saving, and to elaborate on the different manufacturing scenarios to determine any potential cost benefit.